For the first time, Governor Christie has agreed to let a member of the Supreme Court stay on the job, announcing Wednesday that he would renominate the chief justice, ending months of speculation and fears that the court’s independence would be compromised.

First as candidate, then as governor, Christie has railed against the Supreme Court, repeatedly saying its members are too “activist” and its decisions out of step. Christie has vowed to remake the court, and has told audiences that to do that, he would have to change who sits on the court. Chief Justice Stuart Rabner, the face of the court, will remain, however.

Timeline

2007: Stuart Rabner begins his first seven-year term as chief justice.

May 2010: Months after taking office, Governor Christie announces he will not renominate Associate Justice John Wallace Jr. for lifetime tenure.

January 2011: Associate Justice Roberto Rivera-Soto asks Christie not to renominate him when his term ends later in the year.

September 2011: Anne Patterson, a Republican, takes Rivera-Soto's associate justice seat after she is nominated by Christie and confirmed by the Senate.

March 2012: Associate Justice Virginia Long retires, leaving a second seat empty on the high court.

March 2012: Nominee Phil Kwon is rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is controlled by Democrats, in a 7-6 vote. It's the first time in modern New Jersey history that lawmakers reject a Supreme Court nominee.

May 2012: Chatham Mayor Bruce Harris is also rejected by the Judiciary Committee along party lines.

December 2012: Christie nominates Robert Hanna. After more than a year without a Senate confirmation hearing, the governor withdraws Hanna's nomination and puts him up for a Superior Court judgeship instead. (He had also nominated Superior Court Judge David Bauman for the other seat, a nomination that expired in January 2014.)

August 2013: Christie announces he will not renominate Associate Justice Helen Hoens, a Republican, when her term expires in November. He says he is trying to protect Hoens from grilling by Senate Democrats. He nominates Faustino Fernandez-Vina, a Camden County Republican, to fill her seat.

November 2013: Fernandez-Vina is unanimously confirmed by the Senate.

May 2014: Christie announces he will renominate Rabner for lifetime tenure. In a deal with Democrats, he also nominates Lee Solomon to fill one of the two open seats on the Supreme Court.

Rabner’s reappointment will be a package deal. Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, said he will support Lee Solomon, a Republican now on the Superior Court in Camden County, for a place on the Supreme Court alongside Rabner, whose term was set to expire in June.

Should the Senate confirm Rabner’s renomination – and there is every indication that is what will take place – he will be given tenure and allowed to serve until 2030, when he will hit the mandatory retirement age of 70.

“Over the last seven years that I’ve watched him be the chief justice, my respect for him has never been diminished,” said Christie when he announced the appointments at a news conference Wednesday.

“While there’s been much speculation about all of this from people who don’t know anything about what I’m really thinking,” Christie said, “I’m really pleased to be here today and to be placing his name and nomination for tenure as chief justice of the court.”

In 2010, Christie did not renominate Associate Justice John Wallace, a Democrat, the first time since 1947 and the adoption of the modern state constitution that a justice was not renominated. Last year, Christie declined to renominate Associate Justice Helen Hoens, a Republican.

When he declined to renominate Wallace, Christie said in order to change the court’s decisions, he needed to change the personalities on the bench.

The court’s decisions on school funding for poor communities and its mandate on affordable housing are regular targets of Christie’s attacks. Many in the legal community considered any action by Christie to replace the chief justice as a direct assault on judicial independence – the ability of members of the court to make politically contentious legal opinions without fear of being fired.

There was wide speculation that Rabner might not be renominated. The New Jersey State Bar Association focused much of its annual conference last week on the topic of “judicial independence” and the importance of Rabner’s reappointment.

Christie criticized suggestions that judicial independence was ever at risk.

“This judicial independence thing is a crock,” said Christie. “This is [the bar’s] way they have decided to be relevant.”

If Christie decided not to renominate Rabner, a Democratic appeals court judge would likely have temporarily taken his place on the bench, maintaining the political balance on the court. Currently, the Supreme Court consists of two Democrats, two Republicans and an independent. In addition, there are two temporarily assigned judges on the bench, one a Democrat, the other Republican.

Traditionally, the court has maintained a four-to-three political balance in favor of the governor’s party. Democrats, who control the Senate and the power to approve court nominations, have largely blocked Christie’s choices, citing that partisan balance and claiming Christie was trying to stack the court.

The compromise to renominate Rabner and appoint Solomon still leaves one open seat on the seven-member court. Christie said there were no immediate plans to fill that vacancy.

Sweeney said Rabner’s fate was in jeopardy and that he considered the outcome announced Wednesday a win.

“It’s the reality that [Christie] couldn’t win, so at the end of the day we came to a compromise,” Sweeney said.

Both Rabner and Solomon joined Christie for the announcement at the State House. Both spoke briefly, thanking Christie for their nomination.

“Governor, I thank you for the extraordinary honor you have bestowed on me today that I will do my very best to try to live up to,” Rabner said.

Solomon, 59, is the state Superior Court assignment judge in Camden County. In the early 1990s, Solomon spent time in the Assembly before becoming a county prosecutor. In 2002, Solomon was appointed first deputy U.S. attorney for South Jersey by Christie, who was the state’s U.S. attorney and top federal prosecutor.

After being appointed to the Superior Court, Solomon left the bench when Christie named him president of the Board of Public Utilities, where he pushed for the development of more in-state power plants but was criticized by some for eliminating a fee paid by consumers for energy efficiency improvements. Solomon later returned to the Superior Court.

In 2012, Solomon’s name circulated as a potential nominee, but some legislators had concerns about the diversity of the court. Solomon is white.

Rabner was first nominated to the Supreme Court by Democratic Gov. Jon S. Corzine after serving briefly as the state’s attorney general. Rabner also worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, where he met Christie.

Paris Eliades, the newly sworn in president of the state bar association, said Rabner’s renomination was good news.